All the Reasons I Hate Jay Kristoff and You Should Too
Please stop pretending he's unproblematic, I beg of you.
The Internet loves making fun of men writing women, to the point that there’s a Reddit thread about it. It makes sense since so many of them are so horrifically bad at it. Yet, somehow, a certain subset of these folks will ignore one of the worst men of them all: Jay Kristoff.
Despite having done several bad things that range from “cringe” to “are you fucking kidding me,” the author seems to avoid having any mark on his reputation. Luckily for y’all, I’m here to change that! In easy listicle format to boot!
He wrote graphic sex scenes involving a sixteen-year-old girl.
Now the book in question is Nevernight, which is one of the only five books Book Twitter has heard of, so sorry to ruin this for you. The main character, Mia, is sixteen. She has sex and Kristoff writes this scene in detail (he even describes it as "smut" on his website). The issues come in when you realize that Jay Kristoff is a man in his forties and the book is marketed towards adults. This isn't for teens. He's writing erotica of minors because he's a creep and those who refuse to engage with those scenes uncritically, well...I got some news for you.
He decided to pull inspiration for his bad guys from antisemitic tropes.
Blood libel. I'm talking about blood libel. Now some of you may be wondering, "Laura what is this and where does it show up in Jay Kristoff's books?" Well, the latter can be answered easily enough: it shows up in the goddamn Nevernight trilogy! To keep this as short as possible: blood libel is this thing that started in the Middle Ages where Christians decided that Jewish people performed blood sacrifices specifically using Christian children. This idea pervaded for centuries. In Nevernight, Jay Kristoff has a character who practices a form of blood magic. Blood magic itself isn't antisemitic and can be interesting! Except in Nevernight, the character is named Adonai. Adonai is, in fact, one of the Jewish names for God. At best, this is incredibly badly done research. At worst it uses a thing that got people killed for entertainment value. In any respect, it's terrible, and Kristoff's apology shows that he doesn't even truly regret his actions.
He appropriated Japanese culture for Stormdancer and didn't even try to be respectful.
Some may say that this Japanese-inspired fantasy is, in fact, an example of cultural appreciation. And to you, I would say no. Because to write a book about a marginalized culture that you know nothing about, as a privileged person, requires research, sensitivity readers, and a level of respect that becomes obvious in the work. In the case of Stormdancer, many Japanese American readers felt it wasn't. With quotes about his research process including jokes like "sleeping with manga under [his] pillow," I don't need to read the book to believe them.
He cyberbullied a booktuber for...having a nuanced opinion.
And here we are, the final reason you should hate Jay Kristoff: he weaponized his fan base to attack a Black booktuber. The reason he typed a subtweet calling her "worthless noise?" Because she dated say that Charlie Bowatar's art is great but she had same-face syndrome (where an artist draws people with very similar faces). While it may suck to hear, it wasn’t bullying not did the booktuber even intend for Charlie Bowatar to see it. But she did. And Jay Kristoff got involved because heaven forbid a Black woman has an opinion that isn't kissing white people's ass, amirite?
Just to be clear: I'm not advocating that creators just accept critiques in obvious bad faith with a smile on their face. Nor am I saying not to defend your friends. But keep in mind: OP's opinion was valid and she meant well. She even said the artist was good! But that wasn't good enough.
Now we all know there are exceptions to the "men writing women badly" rule, but sweeties, Jay Kristoff isn't one of them. So Book Twitter here I am, just a girl standing in front of the Internet, begging you to read anyone else. Anyone. I even have a list to help: https://lauraslawsonlit.substack.com/p/five-books-that-are-better-than-anything